Parvatrema timondavidi (Digenea; Gymnophallidae) transmitted by a clam, Tapes philippinarum, in Korea

Metacercariae of Parvatrema timondavidi (Digenea; Gymnophallidae) were found from Tapes philippinarum, one of the most common marine clams in Korea. T. philippinarum was collected from a fishery market in Seoul, and all of the clams examined were found to contain many gymnophallid metacercariae. To get adult worms, 10 ICR mice were fed with 100 metacercariae each and sacrificed by cervical dislocation at 7, 10 and 14 days after the infection. The adult worms harvested from the intestinal contents of the mice were morphologically characterized by oval body shape, large oral sucker with lateral projections on the lip, absence of the ventral pit, single cluster of vitellaria, and separately located genital pore from the ventral sucker. Based on these characters they identified as P. timondavidi Bartoli, 1964. This study first confirms the presence of P. timondavidi metacercariae in T. philippinarum in Korea.